The men and women’s soccer teams have done, U of T proud at this seasons Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championship in their respective categories, even though the women’s team is out of the gold medal hunt.
Watching the teams play, it was easy to conclude that the coaching staff was doing their job very well and the players also learned from past mistakes. Every game seemed to be an improvement upon the last one.
At season’s end, the men finished in second place behind the Western Mustangs. It came down to a game that was decided on penalty kicks. Last weekend they competed at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championships in Montreal, and finished sixth in the overall rankings.
The women’s team could not, however, make the CIS championships as they were defeated in the OUA final four.
The men’s team performance earned them credibility with the CIS officials, as they had been rated fifth in the top ten teams. Also, two Blues’ players, Sean Myers and Mike Bialy, were picked as the two forwards for the CIS All-Canadian second team.
Commenting on the team’s performance, men’s coach John Vidovich remarked that the team’s performance team’s performance was “good, but [is] needing improvement. We consider getting to the championship to be an accomplishment to be proud of. The championship was full of lessons for us, which we will hope to apply next year.”
Similarly, despite their absence from the national championships, Donna Carvalhal and Ashleigh Dolbaczuk of the women’s team made the first and second teams of the CIS All-Canadian team respectively.
The Blues soccer teams have left good memories to talk about at the close of another season. The OUA rankings and awards released at season’s end revealed that Varsity Blues players and individuals from the coaching crew put up a fine outing.
The awards have the men’s coach John Vidovich claiming a share of the Coach of the Year Award. It is the second for the Blues coach who took his players on rigorous training sessions and displayed dynamics in tactical formations during game play.
For the North/South Division, the women’s soccer team dominated the first and second all-star teams. For the first team, Donna Cavalhal was named for defence, while Ashleigh Dolbaczuk and Lauren Karst were named for midfield positions. Goalkeeping was given to the Blues’ Andrea Tristao. Loretta DeThomasis and Erin Osborne stand on defence for the second team.
The Blues were also well represented on the men’s first and second all-star teams. George Davis, Mike Bialy, and Sean Myers were named for defence, midfield, and forward positions, respectively, as part of the first team. Only Faiz Kareem made the second all-star team, standing as the lone Blue on defence.
Coach Vidovich also had another player in mind that he felt worthy of commending for his “off-field leadership.” Pierre Grossi was his pick when asked if there were any other players he would award honours to. He also praised Sean Myers for his excellent performance, and Faiz Kareem and Kern Juman for “playing through injuries and with great heart.”
Support comes from the athletics staff but “the challenge for us remains to raise funds on our own to expand the scope of the program and raise our level of performance,” said Vidovich. This may explain why the team was not able to achieve this season’s goal of winning the OUA title. Despite the funding problems, the Blues still say that next year will be better, as they have taken some technical issues into consideration.
The problem might, however, be with the men’s team, as most key players will be leaving the team. This is a concern for Coach Vidovich: “As always, because we are the Blues, we will be very competitve [next season]. However, we may find it even more difficult to win the national championship than [it was] this past weekend, due to the departure of players.”
He maintained that next season is too early to predict, but “our goal every year is to win the national championship. We are the biggest school in the country with access to the most players. We really should be winning the championship on a frequent basis. As a result, we feel that we fell short of our goal this year. We will have a better sense of our championship prospects after our first game in September 2005.”
The Blues might have fallen short of their goals this season, but every match they played was worth watching and they earned every win they had. Every match they lost was a lesson they learnt.
The hope is that the overall lessons of this season will transform into double national championship wins next some fall next year. With a lot of veterans leaving that will be difficult, but never count out those resilient Blues.
